San Ysidro district weighs cost of allowing state to take over

Administrators acknowledge that San Ysidro teachers have endured unusually tough times, but they stress that none of those challenges negates the budget problems.

“If somebody doesn’t believe me, they don’t have to believe me,” Dena Whittington, the district’s assistant superintendent of business services, said at a school board meeting last week that was attended by skeptical teachers who have rejected the district’s grim financial outlook. “There are a lot of outside agencies and experts in the field that are validating everything.”

At that meeting, the board approved its first interim budget, again with a negative certification.

“There is no reason to believe that anything has gotten any better,” said James Whitlock, a consultant retained by the school district and a retired assistant superintendent versed in human resources for the Fallbrook school district. “There is no pot of gold at the end of this rainbow.”